Two questions
This website aims to answer two questions about the privatised water industry of England and Wales:
Were returns to shareholders excessive?
Was investment in wastewater infrastructure sufficient?
About the author
I am a retired audit Partner living in Oxford, and the sole author of this independent website.
I began my research into the UK water industry for two reasons. I had spent 23 years as an auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Russia and seen what became of efforts to introduce privatisation into its state-run economy. Subsequently, after retiring, I was fortunate to live for seven years by one of the most beautiful urban lakes in the world, Lake Annecy. There I got to know not only its fascinating limnological history but also its, no less remarkable, political history. I came to understand that it was one of two sites, together with Lake Washington in the US, of the first successful, citizen-led, comprehensive environmental campaigns anywhere, ever. I have told its story at lakeannecystory.com.
On returning to live in Oxford five years ago I came across a local environmental campaign, Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP), led by Ashley Smith and Peter Hammond, investigating the performance of privatised water companies and their economic and environmental regulators. I offered to lend a hand on the financial side of things. From reading company financial statements I developed the impression that not every company had at all times been as transparent as would be desired, and Ofwat’s extensive database of documents and reports was not as helpful as I would have hoped in understanding company performance.
At the same time, the justifiably extensive and increasing public debate about the future of this critical national infrastructure seemed stuck in gridlock. On the one hand, critics of the industry complained about the billions taken in dividends, the millions paid to chief executives and the thousands of pollution incidents. On the other hand, supporters of the privatised industry pointed to the billions of pounds invested, the reasonableness of executive pay and the great progress being made in tackling the challenges the industry faces. Answers to the above two questions above could bring clarity to this debate.
What is on this website
- Financial statements 1990 -2026 for the 10 regulated water and wastewater companies originally privatised together with their parent groups and Scottish Water. Every year has a link to published accounts and all can be searched on the Search page.
- Sewage works map. 5,902 of these companies’ permitted sewage treatment works. Each has a card with the Environment Agency’s compliance findings and local press reports numbered to their sources.
- Comparability adjustments and adjusted financial statements (in preparation). Adjustments to put every company on a comparable accounting basis, and the industry’s financial statements restated on that basis.
- Analysis of financial performance (in progress). Preliminary findings, supported by tables and charts linked to company financial statements for every company.
- Analysis of Operational performance (in preparation).
How the figures are compiled
Everything on this site comes from the public record: the companies’ audited financial statements and regulatory returns, Ofwat’s determinations, Environment Agency reports and published press articles. Every figure can be traced to its source. Where a figure is adjusted, the adjustment is shown separately from the published figure, with its reason.
Independence
This work is mine alone and has received no funding of any kind. I contribute from time to time to the work of WASP and the People’s Commission on the Water Sector; the analysis on this site is my own.
Citing this website, and corrections
Please cite as: Root, S. (2026) Water Privatization: a financial history of the UK water industry since privatization. waterprivatization.co.uk (accessed [date]).
If you find an error, please tell me through the Contact page. Corrections are made at source and the page is rebuilt.
I have given written evidence to Parliament (reference WQI0021) on the financial aspects of the regulation of the water companies.
I appeared in a Panorama programme in December 2024
Stanley Root
Oxford
November 2026